Today's automobile bodies are treated with multiple layers of coatings which not only enhance the appearance of the automobile, but also provide protection from corrosion, chipping, ultraviolet light, acid rain and other environmental conditions which can deteriorate the coating appearance and underlying car body.
Waterborne coatings are a preferred basecoat and/or clearcoat technology because of their low organic content. The formulations of these coatings can vary widely. However, a major challenge that faces all automotive manufacturers is how to dry, set and/or cure these coatings with minimal capital investment and floor space, which is valued at a premium in manufacturing plants.
The broad use of waterborne coatings in the automotive coating industry has been impeded by a perceived need by automakers for significant investment in environmentally controlled spray booths for coating applications. The use of these environmentally controlled spray booths increases the cost involved in coating the substrate.
A controlled climate during spraying of the waterborne coating has been believed necessary to regulate the evaporation of water and other volatiles as the coating material is sprayed onto the substrate. While controlling the evaporation rate of water is important to the overall performance of the coating in terms of appearance and color, traditional coating processes focus almost exclusively on controlling the water evaporation rate as the waterborne coating material is being sprayed onto the substrate. To that end, expensive environmental controls have been used during the spraying of a coating material onto the substrate to control the evaporation rate at spray. However, the importance of controlling water and/or volatiles evaporation from the deposited waterborne coating material has not been appreciated.
As will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the automotive coating art, it would be advantageous to provide a coating method and/or device which reduce or eliminate the need for costly environmentally controlled spray booths for applying a basecoat and/or clearcoat onto an automotive substrate.